I am not going to make an argument for supporting hacker Gary McKinnon in his bid to overturn the decision to extradite him to the US. If even the Daily Mail believes he should be tried in an English court, then I find it hard to believe that the average Pirate is not well aware of Gary's situation. Most of you will have strong feelings about it too. I admit that I do. The goal of this post is not to argue for my opinion - policy should never be made on the fly - but to ask for your help in deciding if, and how, the party should support Gary.

Alice Taylor is Channel 4 Television's Commissioning Editor for Education, and a founding member of the Open Rights Group. She's recently written an essay for Creative Scotland -- a government body "tasked with leading the development of the arts, creative and screen industries across Scotland" -- which chimes with what the Pirate Party's been saying:

The Performing Rights Society don't like bad press. Today, the BBC are reporting that the PRS have backed down after threatening 56 year old Sandra Burt of the A&T Food store in Clackmannanshire, Scotland with a fine of "thousands of pounds" for the serious crime of singing to herself while stacking shelves without purchasing a licence.

Threats from the rights organisation had already forced the shop to get rid of the radio that Sandra Burt used to enjoy listening to, despite the fact that the radio station had already paid the monopoly's self dictated rate for the right to broadcast music to the public.

Pirate Party leader Andrew Robinson was interviewed on the radio 4 programme Click On this Monday, discussing how the Pirate Party got started and where it's going. Until next Monday, you can listen to it on the BBC iPlayer; the segment begins at 6:15.

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